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I used to be able to play a straight tenth on white keys. But months of playing Chopin Etude 10/1 stretched it further. I can now reach an eleventh (though barely). I don't have big hands. This is all stretch. My pinky and thumb stretch to a straight line.

Just because I was curious, I measured my hand span. My left hand from tip of thumb to tip of little finger is 9 1/4 " (close to Jazzwee, it almost goes to a straight line). My right hand span is 8 3/4" due to a dislocated thumb in college, it's just not going any further. I do do finger stretches - I think it helps. That and practicing playing 10ths with both hands. I have long fingers though.

I can reach 10ths with no problem at all.With my hand splayed out I can get to 10 1/4".I've got big mitts but maybe they're more limber than most because I can stretch my thumb and little finger so that they are in a straight line. I don't know if this is normal or not.

My hands are about 7", but I can stretch to about 8 and 1/4. I feel like I'm going to be able to stretch more eventually because when I started I could barely reach an octave, now I can reach a flat ninth comfortably. Maybe someday I'll be able to reach a ninth. I don't mind if I don't, though. My hands have gotten pretty mobile around the keys.

Just because I was curious, I measured my hand span. My left hand from tip of thumb to tip of little finger is 9 1/4 " (close to Jazzwee, it almost goes to a straight line). My right hand span is 8 3/4" due to a dislocated thumb in college, it's just not going any further. I do do finger stretches - I think it helps. That and practicing playing 10ths with both hands. I have long fingers though.

Sparkey, yes that's normal I guess. I can also stretch my ring finger in that same line and that makes even a longer stretch than with the pinky

Holy carp, I just looked and you're correct, my fourth finger can reach farther than my pinky of course.Why haven't I even noticed that before? I can reach an 11th with that without much of a problem but with my pinky an 11th is harder to make.Thanks for clueing me in.

I always thought my hands were so large because I can barely fit into size XL work gloves. Even those are tight some times.

My thumb muscle area is very large however. Like a chicken leg/ drumstick. Maybe beefy hands and fingers take up more volume somehow. Probably. Obviously actually!

Anyway, my hands are 8 1/2 across at the widest point. I can play a tenth but only at the edge of the keys. In most cases I would probably convert the 10th or higher into a fast skip between the two keys. It can sound very nice that way, especially if played with a lot of feeling. It's a nice way to end a piece too.

Sparkey, yes that's normal I guess. I can also stretch my ring finger in that same line and that makes even a longer stretch than with the pinky

Holy carp, I just looked and you're correct, my fourth finger can reach farther than my pinky of course.Why haven't I even noticed that before? I can reach an 11th with that without much of a problem but with my pinky an 11th is harder to make.Thanks for clueing me in.

One technique for playing octave runs is to alternate between 1-4 and 1-5, so you use thumb and ring finger for the first octave, then thumb and pinky finger for the next and so on. My teacher just showed me how to do that on the first Gershwin prelude.

Sparkey, yes that's normal I guess. I can also stretch my ring finger in that same line and that makes even a longer stretch than with the pinky

Holy carp, I just looked and you're correct, my fourth finger can reach farther than my pinky of course.Why haven't I even noticed that before? I can reach an 11th with that without much of a problem but with my pinky an 11th is harder to make.Thanks for clueing me in.

OMG I didn't even think of this. My thumb and fourth finger (which is used a lot for stretches in Chopin 10/1 stretches to like 9 3/4" vs. my pinky which is only like 9 1/8".

I can do a straight line also with thumb and 4th. That took a lot of work to accomplish

Why have I never wondered about this before. On my (free) hardware store yardstick, I measure 8 7/8", but that is with a very flat hand. More meaningfully, with some arch, it comes out to playing a tenth comfortably on the naturals, and closer to 8-and-a-quarter inches.

One technique for playing octave runs is to alternate between 1-4 and 1-5, so you use thumb and ring finger for the first octave, then thumb and pinky finger for the next and so on. My teacher just showed me how to do that on the first Gershwin prelude.

I'm using that to play "legato" bass lines. The thumb (higher octave) jumps while the lower octave is played legato using 4/5.

Also I had the habit of using both 4 and 5 to press the lower octave note... but that gave some unwanted accents I'm playing the bass notes too loud anyway so more work to be done in that region